Eight partners have been shown the door by major consultancy firm PwC following a high-profile confidentiality breach involving secret federal tax information.
Former chief executive Tom Seymour, who has already stepped down ahead of his retirement date, was on the list of eight names either directly involved with the information breach or in the firm’s handling of the incident.
The other seven are Peter Konidaris, Eddy Moussa, Richard Gregg, Pete Calleja, Sean Gregory, Peter van Dongen and Wayne Plummer.
Some of the partners have left, and others are in the process of exiting the company.
The eight names are in addition to the four former partners, Michael Bersten, Peter Collins, Neil Fuller and Paul McNab, who have already been found to be involved in the confidentiality breach.
PwC has been under pressure to reveal identities, with the number unveiled falling well short of the 63 names handed to the federal government who received emails containing sensitive information.
The consultancy firm has come under fire following revelations staff shared confidential tax information from the Treasury Department to drum up new business.
A former partner at PwC was caught sharing information about a proposed crackdown on multinational tax avoidance with companies interested in avoiding their obligations.
The firm launched an inquiry and federal police are also investigating.
PwC acting CEO Kristin Stubbins said it was clear a number of partners had behaved in a way that had fallen short of what was expected of them.
“They are now being held accountable for their misconduct,” she said.
“While we cannot change the past, we can control our actions today and in the future.”
The matter may also be investigated by the new national anti-corruption watchdog, with a Greens senator referring the incident to the new body over the weekend.
Alternatively, there could be a public hearing into the broader issue of the federal government’s use of contractors.
In his first speech as the anti-corruption commissioner, Paul Brereton said the watchdog would consider such an inquiry without referring to specific allegations.
“One thing we will do in public is to conduct inquiries into corruption risks and vulnerabilities, and measures to prevent corruption, in Commonwealth agencies and in Commonwealth programs,” he said.
“For example, we may conduct a public inquiry into risks and vulnerabilities, not involving a specific allegation of corruption, in a program in which contractors are used by a government agency to deliver benefits intended for members of the public.”
Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who has been pursuing the PwC scandal in parliamentary inquiries, said the new commission needed to examine the issue.
“I have made a referral about PwC because I believe we need a wide-ranging, independent, well-resourced inquiry by a national anti-corruption commission, taking apart what has actually happened in the terrible chapter within PwC,” she said.
“We’re looking for action into the future so these kinds of conflicts of interest, which cost the Australian public so much, don’t occur again.”
Senator Pocock said PwC needed to come clean “once and for all” about the information involved in the scandal, criticising the consultancy for drip-feeding knowledge.
“We need consequences for behaviours that were wrong, behaviours that are being corrupt so that Australians can be confident that their tax revenues are being collected appropriately,” she said.
